Crime and Misconduct Commission calls for Qld. police commissioner to be more accountable

THE Crime and Misconduct Commission has insisted Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson's new contract make him accountable for officer bad behaviour after claiming the force was unwilling and reluctant to fix problems.

In a confidential letter to Police Minister Neil Roberts about Mr Atkinson's reappointment, CMC chairman Martin Moynihan said investigations showed "inadequate supervision and intervention in the context of operational policing" and "continued unwillingness ... to counter unauthorised access of the police computer system".

Several allegations of system abuse were revealed earlier this year, including a police constable accused of rape and stalking who logged in under another officer's name to check the background of a girlfriend's former fiance, and a senior female detective who was accused of stealing money from the station's social club.

"In my view the conditions of Mr Atkinson's reappointment for a further three years should provide some recognition of the need to effect improvement in these areas, thus imposing upon the Commissioner of Police accountability for occasional and systemic failure in the areas of supervision and unethical behaviour," he said.

The letter written in April this year, which was obtained by The Courier-Mail under Right to Information, followed a spat between the State Government and Mr Moynihan over the handling of Mr Atkinson's reappointment. Mr Moynihan claimed he hadn't been informed before Premier Anna Bligh's decision but the Government denied this, saying meeting notes showed evidence to the contrary.

Mr Atkinson said at a public hearing into systemic issues identified during an investigation into allegations of police misconduct on the Gold Coast, that any failure of professional standards by members needed to be addressed in a "swift, proportionate and balanced manner".

The CMC's Operation Tesco examined allegations of inappropriate associations with criminals, drug use, misuse of confidential police information and resources, leadership and supervision, and acceptance of gratuities.

The CMC released a statement this week saying its relation with QPS was "not aggressive but reflective of healthy co-operation".

"This co-operation, however, will not always mean that we'll reach consensus - nor should it," the statement said. "If the CMC is to maintain high standards of integrity within the QPS and other public sector organisations, it is inevitable that there will be disagreement from time to time."

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Former Qld. cop jailed for stealing a pistol and swapping it with a friend for two surfboards

The Gold Coast cops again

A former Gold Coast cop who swapped a police pistol for two surfboards has been sentenced to two years' jail, but will be free in six months. Christopher Morris Curtin stole the Glock .22 handgun from the gun safe at the Surfers Paradise police station in 2001 and swapped it with a mate, a NSW surfboard maker and convicted drug dealer, for two boards.

Southport District Court was told the surfboard maker, Brian Kellway, wanted the gun for pig shooting. [A .22 for shooting pigs? Tell us another one!]

The weapon was traced back to Surfers Paradise police station after it was on-sold several years later for $5000 to an undercover NSW police officer.

Curtin, who quit the Queensland Police Force in 2008 and became a wildlife carer, pleaded guilty to aggravated stealing and possession of tainted property. Judge Kerry O'Brien said he accepted Curtin had stolen the gun to help a friend rather than a crime figure. But he told Curtin: "The community expects police, those charged with detecting things, not to succumb to such behaviour.''

He jailed Curtin for two years, but orderered the sentence be suspended after six months.

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Ludicrous: Crime rates down in Queensland – but there are more murders, assaults, computer fraud and traffic offences

MURDERS, assaults, computer fraud and traffic offences have risen in Queensland in the past year but the overall rate of crime has fallen.

Police Minister Neil Roberts and Deputy Commissioner Ian Stewart have released the 2009-2010 police statistical review, hailing it as a positive result.

But the report shows spikes in some of the most serious crimes, with nine more murders last year compared with the previous year, assaults up six per cent and over 18,000 fraud offences.

Police also issued more traffic fines and there was a 53 per cent leap in disqualified drivers.

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Qld. cops don't dob on cops: report

A new report on police ethics has found some officers would not dob in [incriminate] a colleague who stole confiscated drugs and sold them on the street. The 158-page report released by the Crime and Misconduct Commission today, is based on surveys of recruits and first-year constables conducted between 1995 and 2008.

Although the commission found several positive developments over time including a majority view by police that "improper behaviour is serious and inexcusable", it also identified a number of worrying trends. They included a widespread reluctance among junior officers to formally report misconduct to the police service or the CMC, with about half saying they would not dob in an officer who stole drugs and sold them on the street.

The findings also revealed the majority of recruits and first year constables believed whistleblowers were likely to be ostracised by their peers. "Over two-thirds of recruits and 80 per cent of FYCs agreed that an officer who reported misconduct was likely to be 'given the cold shoulder'," the report said.

The commission has stressed the need for ongoing ethics training, emphasising the seriousness of all improper behaviour by police and at the same time raising awareness of and compliance with QPS policies and legislative obligations.

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More Qld. cops who think they are judge and jury

Sunshine Coast police have been accused of negligence after punishing a teenager for riding without a helmet by forcing him to deflate his bike’s tyres, then leaving him stranded near bushland several kilometres from home.

Sippy Downs 15-year-old Josh Maday was pulled over by two officers about 3pm Saturday while riding his BMX bike on Claymore Road. Instead of issuing him with a warning for not wearing a helmet, the officers forced Josh to deflate his tyres so the bike couldn’t be ridden. He had no mobile phone credit and no option but to push his bike 3km home.

The Mountain Creek High School student’s mother agrees Josh was in the wrong for not wearing a helmet but believes the police response was way out of line. "It’s the first time he’s ever been pulled over and I understand the importance of helmets and I tell him to wear it all the time," Anne Dyer said. "He didn’t have it on him and there’s no excuse for that but they forced him to let the tyres down and wouldn’t let him go any further. "With the whole Daniel Morcombe case in the air you’d think they wouldn’t just leave him on the side of the road."

The officers called into Ms Dyer’s house to notify her of Josh’s situation but she wasn’t home. With his mobile phone out of credit, the teenager proceeded to make the half-hour trek home on foot.

"I’ve heard of kids getting a warning and with the bike laws, as a general rule, they’re supposed to give a warning, caution and then fine," Ms Dyer said. "I can understand them giving him a fine but I’ve never heard of a police officer deflating tyres. "It’s not uncommon for kids to ride around without a helmet but it’s like they were on a mission that afternoon and used him as an example."

Ms Dyer has since spoken to one of the officers involved, who defended his actions.

In a statement issued to the Daily, a Queensland Police spokeswoman said the officers used their "discretion" but declined to confirm whether deflating tyres was part of police protocol. "The officers used their discretion to deal in the manner they thought was most appropriate considering the full circumstances of the interaction with the young person," she said.

"By taking this course of action, rather than issuing an infringement notice and $100 penalty, they avoided a repetition of the offence, and possible injury to the juvenile. "We acknowledge that in retrospect there may have been more appropriate ways of managing the situation."

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Crooked cop off the hook

Victoria's peak corruption fighter says it is powerless to take action on "Officer X", a serving Victoria Police member linked to gangland figures, a multi-million dollar armed robbery and a drug house.

Senior police sources are flabbergasted the Office of Police Integrity has said it is unable to tackle the matter.

Today the Sunday Herald Sun reveals details of the internal police case against the veteran detective - Officer X - including alleged links to gangland patriarchs George Williams and Lewis Moran. Key links include:

WHEN police raided an unoccupied drug house in country Victoria, Officer X called investigators to admit he owned the property.

PHONE calls between an ex-cop friend of Officer X and the Broadmeadows home of crime boss George Williams.

SURVEILLANCE of Officer X being driven in Moran's car to a Tabaret car park, where the pair spoke.

A DETECTIVE Inspector said there was also "past known dubious association" between Officer X and the Moran family.

TAPED conversations between Officer X and Moran.

HOLES in Officer X's story of how he was tied up while guarding $4 million of cigarettes stolen in a heist police believe was masterminded by Lewis Moran a decade before his murder in 2004.

HIS ownership of properties across the nation.

When questioned by the Sunday Herald Sun over the alleged offences, Officer X - who is not being named for legal reasons - said: "I have nothing to say about those."

An ex-police inspector made a case to the Office of Police Integrity in 2007, provided documents and told it of existing files allegedly implicating the sergeant.

Three years later, the OPI said it was dropping the matter because files on Officer X that were meant to be with the Ethical Standards Department had vanished.

Senior police sources are angry the OPI has not tackled the matter. Former Detective Inspector Paul Newman advocated an internal probe of Officer X in 2002 but has been disappointed by the results. When contacted by the Sunday Herald Sun, ex-Insp Newman said: "I would have thought if the OPI were going to do a thorough investigation, they would come and interviewed me. I have not been approached."

Police received intelligence that Officer X's ex-cop friend -"Birdy" - was approaching officers for help setting up the country Victoria drug house. Internal investigators concluded "a probable inference could be drawn that a conspiracy had already taken place between (Birdy) and (Officer X)". More than 50 calls were made between Officer X and Birdy in the lead-up to the drug house being raided.

Officer X's explanation for owning the drug house was that it was an investment property he rented out. But the man Officer X nominated as his tenant denied all knowledge and said he had previously lost his wallet at the scene of a house fire and thought someone may have obtained his details then.

Birdy, remarkably, was the man who discovered Officer X tied up after the multi-million dollar cigarette heist, but Birdy's statement taken by police after the heist does not mention why he was there.

In the lead-up to the robbery, Birdy made several calls to the Prince of Wales Hotel in Flemington. Police concluded those calls would have been to communicate with Moran. There has never been an internal probe of the cigarette heist

The Sunday Herald Sun spoke to 12 sources for this story, including senior former and serving detectives. "Anything you hear about Officer X is true ... his continued survival in the job is not a closed secret but an open joke," one said.

Some said he had also come under a cloud for associating with disgraced officer Denis "Lard" Tanner.

In 2002, police reported that a month after meeting Lewis Moran at the Tabaret, Officer X called Moran and the pair agreed to meet at a suburban KFC. Officer X did not record either meeting in his police diary nor notify any of his superiors.

A police spokeswoman said there had been two "very thorough" investigations. "On both occasions the allegations were found to be unsubstantiated," she said. "These investigations remain open and if further evidence came to light, both matters would be re-examined. "There is no active ESD investigation involving this member."

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Qld. police watchdog accuses Deputy Police Commissioner Kathy Rynders of bungling disciplinary decision

Cops covering for cops, as usual


The crooked bitch above

The Crime and Misconduct Commission has delivered a scathing assessment of the objectivity of Deputy Police Commissioner Kathy Rynders as she prepares to discipline six officers involved in the Palm Island investigation.

In a hearing before the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal, CMC barrister John Allen suggested Ms Rynders got virtually nothing right when she ruled misconduct charges against an officer accused of assault were unsubstantiated.

Sergeant Damien Chapman is alleged to have punched a 15-year-old boy under his ribs during his arrest at Clontarf, north of Brisbane, in May 2007. The complainant, now 18, was diagnosed as having a severely ruptured spleen after he began vomiting in pain at the Redcliffe police watchhouse shortly after his arrest.

Although doctors found the injury must have occurred within the two hours before his arrival at hospital, Deputy Commissioner Rynders decided it could not be proven that Sgt Chapman assaulted the boy.

Mr Allen told the tribunal yesterday there was no other plausible explanation for the injury, despite Ms Rynders finding it could have occurred while he was moving furniture at his house. He argued had that been the case, the boy would not have been able to flee Sgt Chapman when he arrived to arrest him over an alleged break and enter. "There is no record of any blunt force from behind being suffered by (the complainant) prior to his arrest," Mr Allen said.

He told the tribunal all Ms Rynders got right in her investigation was that the injury could not have occurred while the boy was being transported to the watchhouse. "There was simply no evidence to support that," Mr Allen said.

"(The complainant) has been consistent in his early complaint of assault by (Sgt Chapman). He's alleged an assault by police of a type that was consistent with the injury he received."

The CMC wants the tribunal to set aside Ms Rynders' ruling and sack Sgt Chapman for misconduct. Tribunal chairman James Thomas and senior member Susan Booth are expected to publish their decision in the next two weeks.

Ms Rynders is yet to decide on appropriate discipline for the six officers adversely mentioned in the CMC report on the police Palm Island death in custody investigations.

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Qld. cops go berserk with Taser

The guy they were attending to had gone berserk but the police themselves were just as much out of control. The cop concerned should be charged with negligent homicide

POLICE repeatedly fired a Taser into a man until a spark "like a piece of lightning" shot out of his chest, an inquest has heard.

Witness Sandra Wynne yesterday told an inquest into the death of north Queensland man Antonio Galeano, 39, how she begged a police officer to stop firing the 50,000-volt device. "His face turned black," she said. "I could hear the buzzing of the Taser and Tony screaming in pain. "Every time I could see a little spark, like a piece of lightning, coming out of his chest. "I said to them: 'How many times can you hit him with that bloody thing until you kill him?' "

She broke into tears as she told the inquest how she watched as her lover died and his "eyes rolled back in his head".

Ms Wynne, a mother-of-two, had called police to calm her drug-addicted partner, who was naked and covered in blood, as he destroyed her flat in Brandon, south of Townsville, on June 12 last year. Galeano had torn out chunks of her hair, smashed furniture and thrown a television through a window.

Data collected from the Taser showed it was activated 28 times during the incident. Ms Wynne said police did nothing to try to resuscitate Galeano. "I was watching him die and they were doing nothing," she said.

The inquest heard earlier an officer had performed chest compressions after noticing Galeano was not breathing, but did not attempt mouth-to-mouth resuscitation because they did not have a mask with them.

Galeano had been treated and released from the mental health unit at Townsville Hospital a day earlier and was "very emotional and upset", claiming he had been beaten up by police, the inquest heard.

It also emerged Senior Constable Craig Myles, who fired the device, had never before used the Taser in the field. Inspector Ron Sakzewski, who headed the internal police investigation into the incident, said Sen-Constable Myles had attended a one-day Taser training course a month before the incident. He said training practices had been revised since Galeano's death.

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Innocent drivers test positive for drugs

Nearly four per cent of people who test positive for drug driving in Victoria and have their licences temporarily suspended are innocent, it emerged today.

Victoria Police today admitted that wrong results were part of the testing process but said it would not change its procedures.

Under the current system, drivers' saliva is tested for cannabis, ecstasy or amphetamines at the roadside and banned for up to 12 hours if they return a positive result. But penalties or permanent bans are not issued until the sample is tested at a drug laboratory, which police say is 100 per cent accurate. [That's a laugh!]

The new statistics emerged after it was revealed today that Geelong man Rory Lalor recently recorded a false positive test and was banned from the behind the wheel for four hours. Mr Lalor paid $115 for an independent test that showed his system was free from illegal drugs, but Victoria Police said yesterday he would never have been fined or banned from driving permanently because his saliva swab was found negative by its laboratory.

Inspector Martin Boorman said today that false positives could be returned if equipment was faulty, if test was not conducted correctly or if the sample itself was problematic but did not elaborate on the last point. He said they were an unfortunate part of the procedure and that 62 of 1618 drug driving tests sent to the laboratory, or 3.8 per cent, had been found to be false.

But he said Victoria Police had accepted this since random drug testing was introduced in 2006 and would not be changing its methods. "I apologise for the inconvenience of these people, but I make no apologies for what we're doing," he said.

Inspector Boorman said police had detected 1556 drug drivers that were potentially a danger to themselves and others on the road.

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Australian police fear photography too

British police have an absolute phobia about photography and some American States also have laws that police routinely abuse to stop photography

A POLICEWOMAN has been caught on camera threatening to "smash" a photographer's phone as he filmed a routine arrest in King Cross.

The female officer is seen on the video walking a short distance from an arrest on Darlinghurst Road to confront several cameramen who were filming on public property.

The arrested man, who was pinned on the ground by four officers and later charged with resisting police, was heard screaming and witnesses allegedly saw one of the officers "putting their knees into his head" during a violent confrontation about 2am.

After the man was restrained, the female officer allegedly approached a photographer and aggressively shoved him in the chest. An officer told the photographer "you wanker, you're such a hero". Not long after the female officer is heard to say, `turn it (the mobile camera) off now before I smash it on the ground'.

Police officers attempted to block the view of the media, who were standing more than 10m away, and cleared away the large crowd that had gathered.

A witness said the police had over-reacted. "The policing was brutal. The guy on the floor was not even fighting back and then [the officers] came over in a threatening way and started intimidating and pushing people - it was like they had something to hide,” he said.

Kings Cross Local Area Command Superintendent Tony Crandell said he had spoken with the junior female officer about her actions and admitted that it could have been `handled better'. "I've spoken with the officer and she has acknowledged that her actions were inappropriate," Supt Crandell said.

Supt Crandell said he had reviewed footage from the incident. "The context of the situation was that a violent offender was being arrested and that person was behaving in an offensive fashion, smashing bottles on to the roadway, picking up scraps of the bottles and throwing them further down the roadway," he said.

Supt Crandell said he had handled the matter 'at a local level' and no disciplinary action would be taken against the female officer. "I've reminded the officer about her responsibilities under the media policy and that media have rights to film."

Supt Crandell said it had become tougher to do police work in Kings Cross because of phone cameras and increased CC-TV surveillance.

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Druggie Victorian cops

Police are failing drug tests more often than motorists or AFL footballers

Shock new figures reveal three officers tested positive to illicit drugs in the past 10 weeks, with two facing possible criminal charges. Hundreds more police will be checked in the next few months as the force accelerates its drug and alcohol testing.

Testing program head Acting Insp John Felton told the Herald Sun officers would soon face a better than one in 10 chance of being tested each year. "To have three (positives) in such a short space of time is disappointing but it also tells me that our approach in intelligence lead testing is sound," he said. "I have got a focus to undertake as much testing as I can and I have put changes in place to ensure that happens. We've done 200 tests in the past 10 weeks and my focus is to continue driving those sorts of numbers."

In August the Herald Sun revealed the force had conducted just 699 tests in 23 months - at which rate it would have taken 41 years to test all 14,400 police.

The latest officers to fail drug tests were among 200 police tested between July 1 and October 19 - a failure rate of one in 67 tests.

Police have said one in 69 motorists failing roadside drug tests in the first six months of the year was a high strike rate because they had focused on hot spots such as nightclubs, rave parties and truck routes.

The AFL tests all listed players at least once a year, and last year conducted more than 1500 tests, with 14, or one in 112, positive.

Acting Insp Felton said most of the latest tests were random workplace checks but the officers who failed were each chosen because of specific information. Seven police have now failed drug and alcohol tests, with 899 checks conducted since the force began testing in August 2008.

Acting Insp Felton would not say if any of the seven had worked in units involved in drug investigations or other "high risk" areas, citing privacy. "The Police Regulation Act forbids me to identify any individuals," he said.

He encouraged officers who had drug or alcohol problems to come forward and get help before they were tested.

The officers who failed the most recent tests were yet to face disciplinary hearings. Of the officers to fail earlier tests, two have resigned and the other two were disciplined.

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Qld. Missing Persons Bureau did not work Sundays when Daniel Morcombe went missing

IF Daniel Morcombe had been reported as a missing person the day he vanished, the file would have gone to "an empty office".

The inquest into his suspected abduction and murder was told yesterday that in 2003, the Missing Persons Bureau "did not work Sundays".

Sergeant Robbie Munn, the police officer who took the initial statement from 13-year-old Daniel's parents, Bruce and Denise, early on the evening of December 7 that year, defended his decision not to immediately launch a full-scale search. Sgt Munn said even if he had forwarded a report to the Missing Persons Bureau, it would have been a waste of time. "They would not have had any staff on a Sunday and it would not have been attended to until Monday," he said. "At that time, it would have been forwarded to an empty office." Sgt Munn said for that reason an "official" missing persons report would have been "impractical and ineffective".

However, the inquest heard processes had since changed and several policies improved. These included the addition of a "risk assessment" check that now had to be completed by police every time someone was reported missing.

Under at times heated questioning from the Morcombes' solicitor Peter Boyce, Sgt Munn stood by his decision to send the Morcombes home to wait and see if Daniel turned up. He said there had been no pre-arranged time for Daniel to be back, so at that point he technically was not missing. Sgt Munn said Daniel had been from a good home, there were no tensions or obvious "warning signs" that would cause the boy to run away.

He organised a Be On The Lookout For (BOLF) bulletin to be broadcast to police in the Sunshine Coast area and said he would call the Morcombes a few hours later.

The inquest heard that when Sgt Munn phoned them at 10pm, darkness and the fact no shops or cinemas were open caused added concern.

Senior Constable Paul Campbell was the next officer involved. He had finished his 2-10pm shift at Palmwoods station, but was passed the responsibility to contact the Morcombes, which he did between 10.30 and 10.45pm. Sen-Constable Campbell said he treated it like a fresh complaint and interviewed Mr Morcombe about the events of the day. He decided it best to wait until the morning and arranged for the Morcombes to go to Palmwoods at 8am on the Monday to ask to lodge a missing persons report. "There were no facts before me that would lead me to think anything sinister had happened," said Sen-Constable Campbell.

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Qld. Police officers Graham Richards and Paul Dalton on trial for trying to pervert course of justice

The trial of two senior Queensland police officers charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice will begin in Rockhampton today. The former boss of Rockhampton's Criminal Investigation Branch Graham Richards and his former colleague Paul Dalton, are accused of conducting a secretive meeting with a prisoner the day before his new cell mate confessed to a murder.

Detective Senior Sergeant Richards, now retired, and Detective Sergeant Dalton, who has been suspended without pay, are accused of meeting with prisoner Lee Owen Henderson at the Capricornia Correctional Centre near Rockhampton in 2005. The two officers were recorded signing in and out of the centre but did not follow the requirement to record the meeting in any diary, log book or running sheet.

The day after the meeting Henderson's new cell mate, Scott Jobling, who was moved to the same cell at the request of the officers, confessed to killing Rockhampton flower seller Suzanne Standing.

The two officers are due in the Rockhampton District Court today at the trial heard by Judge Tony Martin. A jury will be selected today and the trial could run into next week. The police officers are being supported by the Queensland Police Union and both officers will plead not guilty to the charges.

It was previously heard in the committal hearing that the officers' failure to record the meeting with the prisoner was a mere oversight. The two officers were named in the Crime and Misconduct Commission's Operation Capri last year which investigated alleged police misconduct.

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Victoria police officer paid $600,000 for nothing

Ripping off compassionate provisions in the law

A VICTORIA Police officer has been paid $600,000 in salary and benefits despite not working for more than nine years. Sen-Constable Paul Warton has continued to draw a wage and benefits since being suspended from duty in September 2001 after being accused of bullying a fellow officer.

Sen-Constable Warton, who was based in Marysville, received a wage until this month, when he was suspended without pay. His case file has been with the police chief commissioner since 2002, but he has avoided appearing before a disciplinary hearing because of medical reasons. A police spokeswoman said Sen-Constable Warton's psychiatrist provided him with doctor's certificates.

The marathon break from work took in all but six months of Christine Nixon's tenure as chief commissioner. Four police ministers tackled the case without success.

The Herald Sun believes Sen-Constable Warton has also accrued annual leave in the period he has been suspended.

The spokeswoman said Sen-Constable Warton had recently been before the Police Medical Officer and "we are currently assessing a way forward''.

A police source said the case was ridiculous. "These guys get all the help in the world from the Police Association," the source said. "They are very hard for management to deal with. "The system is not working as it should."

Sen-Constable Warton was suspended after he allegedly intimidated another officer who had agreed to give information to investigators about Bairnsdale police strip-searching Aborigines in 2000.

In 2002, Ringwood Magistrates' Court heard the officer feared for his life while a passenger when Sen-Constable Warton reached speeds of 130km/h driving down dirt roads near Marysville.

Sen-Constable Warton was fined $500 without conviction for breaches of the Police Regulation Act and has not returned to work since.

The police spokeswoman said Sen-Constable Warton's suspension was the longest for a Victorian police officer. "Victoria Police has been unable to interview or speak to Sen-Constable Warton as his treating psychiatrist has consistently provided him with doctor's certificates," she said.

Police Association secretary Greg Davies said Sen-Constable Warton was entitled to support and had rights "like any other police officer". Sen-Constable Warton declined to comment.

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WHAAAT?? This is disgraceful!

New law means arrests for 'minor' crimes not worth the effort, say Qld. police. Another case of do-gooder legislation doing more harm than good

Hundreds of offenders could soon escape prosecution by police who say new laws will make arrests for minor crimes not worth the effort. From November 1, police will be required to present more material at an offender's first court appearance, including witness and complainant statements, pictures, CCTV footage and a list of exhibits.

Under reforms adopted by the State Government, officers who fail to fulfil the requirements face the prospect of being charged with contempt of court, which carries a maximum penalty of 12 months' jail.

Queensland Police Union official Tony Collins said many minor offences would be detected but not acted upon because of the threat of police themselves being charged. "How many arrests are you going to make knowing that this sword of Damocles is hanging over your head?" Senior-Sergeant Collins said.

The sort of offences likely to be ignored by police included shoplifting and break and entering where a small amount of property was involved, as well as some domestic violence incidents and minor assaults.

A senior officer, who did not want to be named, said that in the case of assaults, police would be less inclined to encourage victims to make a complaint because it would not be worth the effort. "It's not worth our while to gather all this material then put it before the courts where you get nothing," the senior officer said. "Arrests will dry up and police will start ignoring stuff, but not serious stuff."

The reforms flow from a 2008 review of Queensland's criminal justice system by former judge Martin Moynihan, now the head of the CMC. They are intended to improve disclosure by police to give the accused a better understanding of the case against them from the outset. In his report, Mr Moynihan found there was an attitude among police that it was "not their job to help the defence".

The Queensland Police Service never responded to the report and as a result Sen-Sgt Collins said they were left with laws that would see officers spending more time desk-bound.

"If Moynihan truly wanted to improve the justice system, he would've required full disclosure from both sides of the table. Instead what we've got is a card game where you have to show your opponent all your cards, and they don't have to show you anything."

The QPS would not respond to questions about the changes yesterday but Brisbane criminal defence lawyer Ken Mackenzie said they would foster an efficient justice system. "It's about disclosing (evidence) to the defence early so informed decisions can be made, and the lawyer can advise the client of the case against them and an appropriate plea," he said.

QPU president Ian Leavers said police were concerned about the implications of the reforms.

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